Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I did promise a loot post. I'm afraid it will be somewhat sparse. You see, I went to Sock Summit '09 with a very firm promise to myself. No. Sock. Yarn.

I know, it boggles the mind. No sock yarn at a sock knitting convention? But really, I have quite enough and there were plenty of other things to purchase.

One thing I wanted to find was a support spindle. I had MacGuyver'd myself a support spindle out of a bamboo skewer and a racquetball, and it worked quite well. But it was a bit unwieldy and after one day of marathon spinning (my "challenge" day for the Tour de Fleece), I blistered my fingertips.

I found a lovely spindle at Carolina Homespun. At the time, it wasn't so lovely. It had been around a while (I know because I had looked at it at the Black Sheep Gathering as well). The wood was dry and scratched from much handling, but it had really lovely lines. And Sheila Bosworth had mentioned to me earlier in a post that I could easily take some 600-grit sandpaper to the shaft of my Bossie spindle to clean it up.

I figured the same would work here. So some water and buffing later, and a little bit of Wood Beams, and all of a sudden I had a fantastically gorgeous support spindle.

It also spins well.

In addition I bought two small lots of fiber I thought would be fun. The first is also through Carolina Homespun and comes from Silver Moon Farm. It is a two ounce bag, 50/50 blend of baby camel down and tussah silk, dyed in soft shades of peach, rose and green.

I also grabbed a two ounce mixed bag of "exotic" fibers from A Verb for Keeping Warm. They have stunning fibers colored with natural dyes.

There was plenty of fantastic sock yarn to be had, but that will have to wait for next time and next year.